Justice Driven Product Design
Building products that solve for Inclusion, Inequality and Equity is not enough! We have to build Products that are Just!
Hi! Welcome to Radical Change Makers. Every week, I write about topics that I have learned about or want to learn about hoping that my learning can help you accelerate yours. In today’s post, we will cover a concept I founded called “Justice Driven Product Design”
The tragic and senseless deaths of so many people, including Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor and the unacceptable intolerance displayed against Christian Cooper have not gone unnoticed. The inhuman killing of George Floyd in May, 2020 ignited a movement. But the movement was sparked by many many instances of unacceptable injustices. More recently, anti-Asian hate crimes have reached unprecedented levels. Injustices like these are experienced by people all over the world based on their income, race, skin color, caste, nationality, ethnicity, religious beliefs, gender, sexual orientation, and other dimensions.
Individuals, organizations, and corporations are taking action and taking a stand. People want to take action to show their support for others and are standing up against bias. People are showing support in different ways - protesting, marching, donating, volunteering, raising funds, lobbying for changes, or simply showing up to support their friends. The entire world is looking at policies, training, hiring, people’s attitudes, human nature, etc., Every action counts but what can help get to a tipping point? To bring large-scale change to anything, we need to address many different underlying systemic issues. But first, what are we solving for?
Inequality, Equality, Equity, or Justice?
This image has stuck with me. Inequality is simply unacceptable. We can’t celebrate equality because one of the children doesn’t have access to apples even though both children were treated equally by giving them equal tools of same-sized ladders. Equity is not enough either because by providing custom tools, the problem of access to an equal number of apples is still not solved. As this simple image makes clear, “Justice” would be ideal as the system is being fixed by ensuring both children have access to the same opportunities as represented by the volume of apples on both sides of the tree. This translated to fixing the system to offer equal access to everyone to both tools and opportunities. This is what’s needed to overcome the injustices that have been allowed to continue.
Building products that solve for Inclusion, Inequality and Equity is no longer enough! We HAVE to build Products that are Just!
When solving any complex problem, I apply a lens of systems change and scaled impact. Over the years, my work involved inclusion and fairness for one dimension of people - income. Applying similar approaches made sense and I started thinking about how to build products that go beyond equality and equity and lead to justice. I began to dig deeper to think of what can be done at scale and for the long term. If as Product teams, we are building product experiences that are just, fair, and equitable regardless of race, gender identity and income level, and other dimensions, we would be able to impact society at a much larger scale. We would be doing our part to tip the scales (or the tree) toward Justice.
So, how do we do that? As Product Managers, how can we ensure that we are true stewards of our products and don’t cause biases to become systemic biases that will not just have immediate consequences but might create vicious downward cycles that persist long into the future? To be successful, we will have to think beyond inclusion. We have to think of Justice in our Product Design.
Justice Driven Product Design
Justice Design Product Design is an approach to designing product experiences that build equity and justice for those who have been historically neglected, segregated, and discriminated against. Our North Star for justice is to offer equal access to tools and opportunities to everyone, particularly those who are discriminated against. We can do so by using an inclusive approach to how we build products so that our products drive opportunities for all, inclusive of race, gender identity, ethnicity, disability, immigrant status, or the ways folks identify. With empathy, focus, and intent, we can aim to innovate and deliver products that drive justice and equity for all.
As Technologists and Product Managers, our goals should be to
Go beyond being inclusive and build truly just products.
Use progressive and equity-focused product development processes that go beyond designing for the “average” user.
Develop ways to identify unintended hidden biases in experiences.
Create frameworks and tools in the Product Development Life Cycle that would allow us, and encourage us, to build just products.
Define how PMs/Designers/teams implement checks to ensure we are building more just products.
Develop a library of agreed-upon artifacts like icons, illustrations, and templates that are justice-driven.
This work is complex and not easy. But when was great impact achieved by doing simple or easy things? Even as I write this, I know that I might not be using the right words, images, or examples because no matter how much we care, we cannot completely know everything that others might experience and feel firsthand. So please share your feedback so that we can collectively keep learning.
I will continue to dig deeper into related topics like Inclusive research, team diversity, culture, etc., to keep the conversation going.
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